Trivia

The screenplay was based on the first-hand recollections of the operations of New Orleans' "Red Light" prostitution district published in the book "Storyville, New Orleans: Being an Authentic, Illustrated Account of the Notorious Red Light District" by Al Rose. The book contains many of photos of New Orleans prostitutes taken by E.J. Bellocq, the character played by Keith Carradine in the movie.

Years after Brooke Shields starred in the film, she studied French Literature at Princeton University. Her 1987 senior thesis, written during her final year, was entitled "The Initiation: From Innocence to Experience: The Pre-Adolescent/Adolescent Journey in the Films of Louis Malle, Pretty Baby (1978) and Lacombe, Lucien (1974)," meaning she wrote about a film in which she starred.

Labeled as "child porn" both by the cover of People magazine and popular gossip columnist of the time, Rona Barrett, the movie sparked complete outrage among audiences, even becoming banned in the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Saskatchewan. Brooke Shields declared to People magazine at the time. "It's only a role. I'm not going to grow up and be a prostitute." When Vanity Fair asked her in 2018 if she regrets starring in the controversial flick, she said "It was the best creative project I've ever been associated with. The best group of people I've ever been blessed enough to work with." Director Louis Malle refuted the criticism, stating to People, "Anybody who calls it child pornography has not seen the damn thing ... nymphet and Lolita rub me the wrong way."

Jodie Foster was initially considered for the role of Violet, but declined due to her commitment to Walt Disney Pictures, because she was starring in Candleshoe (1977). When interviewed by Rolling Stone magazine in 1991, Jodie said that she was reluctant to play that role, because she didn't want to be typecast as the underage prostitute she played in Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver (1976).

Regarding one of her nude scenes in the film, Brooke Shields said, "There was a scene, copied from a shot at the time, in which Violet was lying naked on a chaise longue. I had been given a thong but we all agreed it was useless, I had my legs crossed, Louis didn't want it to be pornographic in any way. The shot was quick and represented the precise moment of Bellocq's shot, one second before my character got out of the armchair in an irritated manner to destroy some photographic plates. We did nothing more than copy the pose of that famous photograph and I was completely unaware and not at all disturbed by that scene, which was also very brief. I only remember that I was a bit upset by the fact that I didn't have breasts yet, after all the girl in the photo didn't have any either. I didn't feel violated or dirty, when I got up I put my thong back on and in any case I was only filmed from the shoulders up. I had not yet learned to use my femininity as a tool of seduction, so I was able to shoot with the required serenity. My mother was not present when this scene was filmed and nobody seemed to be worried. It was very quick and I was very young and completely innocent. She was later crucified for allowing it and, in many ways, I understand the criticism, especially now that I am a mother myself. But the world and the film industry were markedly different in those days."